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216 "What were they doing when Miss Minchin caught them?"

"Pretending some silly thing. Ermengarde had taken up her hamper to share with Sara and Becky. She never invites us to share things. Not that I care, but it 's rather vulgar of her to share with servant-girls in attics. I wonder Miss Minchin did n't turn Sara out—even if she does want her for a teacher."

"If she was turned out where would she go?" inquired Jessie, a trifle anxiously.

"How do I know?" snapped Lavinia. "She 'll look rather queer when she comes into the school-room this morning, I should think—after what 's happened. She had no dinner yesterday, and she 's not to have any to-day."

Jessie was not as ill-natured as she was silly. She picked up her book with a little jerk.

"Well, I think it 's horrid," she said. "They 've no right to starve her to death."

When Sara went into the kitchen that morning the cook looked askance at her, and so did the housemaids; but she passed them hurriedly. She had, in fact, overslept herself a little, and as Becky had done the same, neither had had time to see the other, and each had come down-stairs in haste.

Sara went into the scullery. Becky was violently scrubbing a kettle, and was actually gurgling a little song in her throat. She looked up with a wildly elated face.

"It was there when I wakened, miss—the blanket," she whispered excitedly. "It was as real as it was last night."